1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an apparatus for and a method of supplying cold air in a refrigerator and, more particularly, to an apparatus for and a method of supplying cold air to a refrigeration compartment door passing through a distributing duct provided in the apparatus, thus allowing cool air to be simultaneously discharged from both front and rear portions of a refrigeration compartment and effectively uniforming the inner temperature of the refrigeration compartment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate the construction of a typical refrigerator and a general cool air supply construction applied to the refrigerator construction, respectively.
As shown in the drawings, the interior of the typical refrigerator is divided into two compartments: freezer and refrigeration compartments 2 and 4, by a barrier 5 filled with an insulating material.
Now, the circulation of cool air in the above-mentioned refrigerator will be described below.
As shown in FIG. 2, a liquid refrigerant, having low temperature and low pressure, is quickly vaporized in the evaporator 6 while absorbing heat from air in the interior of the refrigerator, thus forming cool air to be circulated in the interior of the refrigerator. That is, the cool air, generated in accordance with the heat exchange operation around the evaporator 6, is partially discharged into the freezer compartment 2 passing through a shroud 12 by a blower fan 8. At this time, the remaining cool air is also discharged into the refrigeration compartment 4 via a space defined between a grill 13 and the shroud 12 arranged in the rear of the grill 13. That is, the cool air freely flows down into a refrigeration compartment duct 10. Thereafter, the cool air is discharged from the rear portion to the front portion of the refrigeration compartment 4 through a plurality of discharging holes 10a which are formed on the front portion of the refrigeration compartment duct 10.
As a result, the cool air, supplied into both freezer and refrigeration compartments 2 and 4, has a relatively high temperature after a time. That is, the low temperature of the cool air is transmitted to food and drink in the freezer and refrigeration compartments 2 and 4, thus forming warm air in both compartments 2 and 4, respectively. Such warm air, circulated through the freezer and refrigeration compartments 2 and 4, returns to the evaporator 6 through first and second return ducts 2a and 4a, which are provided in the barrier 5.
In this case, the circulation of the cool air is determined by the inner temperature of the freezer compartment 2. That is, the refrigerating cycle of the refrigerator, designed for generating cool air and including the evaporator 6 and a compressor (not shown), etc., operates by the current temperature of the freezer compartment 2. Thus, when the inner temperature of the freezer compartment, sensed by a temperature sensor 3 installed in the freezer compartment 2, is higher than a predetermined temperature, the refrigerating cycle is carried out. On the contrary, when the inner temperature of the freezer compartment is less than the predetermined temperature, the driving of the refrigerating cycle is stopped. Alternatively, the driving of the refrigerating cycle may be carried out by the inner temperature of the refrigeration compartment 4.
However, the typical refrigerator is problematic in that it is somewhat difficult for the cool air to be suitably supplied to the refrigeration compartment due to the supplying of the cool air to the freezer compartment.
In addition, it is difficult to evenly maintain the inner temperature of the refrigeration compartment because the cool air is only discharged from the rear portion to the front portion of the refrigeration compartment through the discharging holes 10a.
Furthermore, the temperature of the inside portion of the refrigeration compartment 4 is higher than that of a portion around the door of the refrigeration compartment 4. Particularly, when the door of the refrigeration compartment 4 is repeatedly opened and closed, the temperature around the door portion of the refrigeration compartment 4 rises because hot air is introduced from the surroundings into the refrigeration compartment 4. Therefore, it is difficult for the refrigerator to maintain the freshness of the food and drink in baskets 14 of the refrigeration compartment door.